Compositions for making substrates, in particular fibrous substrates, such as textile, oil- and water repellent have been long known in the art. When treating fibrous substrates and in particular textile such as apparel, it is desired that the textile retains its look and feel as much as possible. Therefore, the composition should normally not contain components that would affect the look of the product, i.e. the treatment should be substantially invisible to the unaided human eye. Also, the feel of the substrate should preferably be substantially unaffected. Typically this means that only low amounts of the solids of the composition can be applied. Accordingly, an oil- and/or water repellent composition should be highly effective in rendering a substrate repellent.
Commercially available oil- and/or water repellent compositions are typically based on fluorinated compounds that have a perfluorinated aliphatic group. Such compositions are also described in for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,175 and EP 435 641. The commercial success of this type of composition can be attributed to their high effectiveness. Fluorinated compounds based on perfluorinated ether moieties have also been described in the prior art for rendering fibrous substrates oil- and/or water repellent. For example, perfluorinated polyether compounds have been disclosed in EP 1 038 919, EP 273 449, JP-A-04-146917, JP-A-10-081873, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,536,710, 3,814,741, 3,553,179 and 3,446,761. It was found that previously disclosed compositions based on perfluorinated polyether compounds may not be very effective in rendering a fibrous substrate oil- and/or water repellent.
Accordingly, it is a desire to find fluorochemical compositions based on a perfluorinated polyether compound that can provide good to excellent oil- and/or water repellency properties to a fibrous substrate. Preferably, the fluorochemical composition is capable of providing durable oil- and/or water repellency properties to a fibrous substrate such that a treated fibrous substrate can substantially maintain the repellency properties even after several washing cycles. Preferably a fibrous substrate treated with the fluorochemical composition has a soft feel, preferably the feel of a treated fibrous substrate is either the same or softer compared to the untreated fibrous substrate. It is a further desire that the fluorochemical compositions can be easily and efficiently manufactured at a low cost. It is further desired to find compositions that have environmentally beneficial properties.